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Blogs by Andy Parker
Russian Spy Scandal...
7/6/2010 8:05:47 AM
You won't catch the Chinese messing around like this...
What a delectably retro spy scandal has emerged in America. In these days of hi-tech cyber-warfare which no one understands, it’s nice to see that the old-fashioned suborning of agents is still going on, and that, in suburban gardens in the penumbra of Washington DC, respectable bourgeois couples are beavering away on behalf of the Kremlin.
The most interesting aspect of this affair – for surely there can’t be much valuable information deriving from it which couldn’t be acquired in a thousand easier ways – is the timing of the revelations. Presidents Obama and Medvedev have been making quite an effort to build up a constructive relationship; surely they don’t want this raining on their parade? Possibly the Americans are making the point that, if the Russians are serious about genuinely better relations, they might start by putting a stop to the silly stuff.
And, just possibly, it’s an attempt to foment divisions within the Russian government. It is generally believed that Prime Minister Putin, KGB to his fingertips, is the main moving force behind what Le Carré used to call the espiocrats. Perhaps the US hope that by calling attention to the fandango they will embarrass Putin in front of Medvedev and thus weaken the former’s position? If so, it suggests a rather simplistic assessment of the balance of personalities and forces within Russia.
Probably the real reason is that the old espiocrats just can’t leave it alone. They have budgets to defend, after all. I have no idea what our own spies do or don’t do, if we have any that is, and I wouldn’t reveal it if I had, but I rather have the impression that we haven’t really got over 1989 either. There’s still this obsession with who’s sleeping with whom, although the old honeytrap-and-blackmail trick hasn’t been successfully pulled for twenty years. The Rules of the Game have been laid down, and thousands of people live by them, and nobody wants to rock the boat.
There is, of course, such a thing as dropping your guard too quickly. It’s a delicious irony that, while all this old-fashioned cultivating of moles and counter-moles was going forward, a girl called Anna Chapman (née Kushchenko), daughter of a mysterious Russian diplomat in Zimbabwe, was able to gallivant to and fro across the Atlantic with wads of dubiously acquired wonga without anyone having the faintest suspicion that she might be some sort of Russian spy. Didn’t the British High Commission in Harare spot her for Pete’s sake? Or were they too busy not sleeping with people they shouldn’t?
One hopes, though, that the old Game is being played in addition to, rather than instead of, the new Game, and that vigilance isn’t dropping where the real business of espionage is going on. Because you can bet your bottom dollar, rouble or yuan that the Chinese don’t arse around like this. They don’t have to make sneaky payments in dead-letter drops to venal suburbanites. They send over tens of thousands of sharp young computer whizzes every year, every one a fervent patriot, whatever passport he or she may carry. I hope we don’t have all our guns pointing in the wrong direction, like Singapore in 1942.
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More Blogs by Andy Parker
• Russian Spy Scandal... - Tuesday, July 06, 2010
• Are all Tea Party members racist? - Monday, March 29, 2010
• Who cares who killed the Hamas Commander - Thursday, February 18, 2010
• Does this report make Obama look foolish? - Thursday, January 21, 2010
• Time to Attack Iran?... - Monday, January 11, 2010
• Israel is Europe's blind spot - Thursday, November 26, 2009
• Is China ready to take over as the next world power... - Tuesday, November 17, 2009
• Bible Death Sentence... - Tuesday, October 20, 2009
• Will the dollar crash? - Tuesday, October 06, 2009
• Reality of US health care........ - Monday, August 17, 2009
• World Attention Forgotten Zimbabwe?.. - Tuesday, August 04, 2009
• Will Islam listen to President Obama? - Tuesday, June 09, 2009
• Should the Government make charities more transparent? - Monday, May 25, 2009
• Swine Flu...nature getting back at us? - Monday, April 27, 2009
• Is limiting 2 children per family the way to save the planet? - Wednesday, April 15, 2009
• What should children learn at School? - Monday, April 06, 2009
• Can the US and Allies defeat the Taliban?.. - Monday, March 23, 2009
• Are we really worried about climate change? - Wednesday, March 18, 2009
• Why you should make your voice heard and take an interest in politics! - Thursday, March 05, 2009
• Are the world leaders right to pump billions into the banks? - Thursday, March 05, 2009
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